Childhood Brain Research Articles

PO-124 The effect of physical education on children's learning and memory ability

Objective Learning and memory ability is one of the symbols of higher animals. Compared with other functional markers, learning and memory ability is the most unique. Early childhood is a critical period of learning and memory in a person's life. As a child's initial stage of brain development, environmental factors in early childhood play a key role in the development of the brain. If this critical period is missed, the flexibility required for learning and memory ability will be lost. By consulting the literature, there are few studies on sports related to learning and memory in China, and the results of research on whether physical exercise can improve memory ability at home and abroad are inconsistent. This study is devoted to the analysis of the current research on the ability of sports to learn and remember, and lays the foundation for the study of the impact of physical activity on the learning and memory of young children.
 Methods This study used literature data method, logic analysis method, and inductive method to conduct statistics and analysis on the learning and memory ability of children in sports. The literature shows that children's participation in physical activity is mainly sports games, basic gymnastics and sports dance. This study studies the effects of different physical activities on children's learning and memory ability from three aspects.
 Results 1. The influence of sports games on children's memory ability is mainly reflected by the memory of the game process. Studies have shown that children's observation ability and memory ability are more affected by sports games, and children have significant improvement in learning and memory ability. Through training, children's ability to use memory strategies can be effectively improved. 2. The basic gymnastics movements are simple, but there are many types of movements. In the process of learning children, it is necessary to connect scattered gymnastics movements to activate the learning and memory cells of the brain. In the learning process of basic gymnastics, accompanied by the rhythm of music, the movements are varied, and the children need attention. In addition, the children are more sensitive to the movements, and are good at imitating movements. The rhythm of the temperament is strong, the interest of the children is increased, and the movements are remembered easily, memory function is activated. 3. The children's brain remembers the characteristics of the dance movements, and the body begins to display and achieve a state of physical and mental pleasure. When performing sports dance programs, the four-limb movement drives the brain movement, which stimulates the brain, enhances learning motivation, improves learning and memory ability, and promotes the intelligence development of children.
 Conclusions During exercise, the brain can excite the motor central nervous system to the muscles, and the working condition of the muscles can also be transmitted to the brain through the motor nerves. The brain nerve center in charge of language, memory, thinking, etc. Which is excited in the nerve center of the brain in charge of exercise. When diffused, it will be protectively inhibited, so that these nerves will be relaxed. The interaction between nerves and muscles will enable the body to form a protective mechanism and form a memory effect, so that children can reduce the intensity of physical activity and reduce injuries. The results show that physical activity enhances learning and memory. The rich form of children's sports has increased the interest of young children in participating in physical activities. Not only does it improve the flexibility and sensitivity of young children through participation in sports activities, but also enhances children's

Food or money? Children's brains respond differently to rewards regardless of weight status.

Brain responses to both food and monetary rewards have been linked to weight gain and obesity in adults, suggesting that general sensitivity to reward contributes to overeating. However, the relationship between brain reward response and body weight in children is unclear. The objective of this study was to assess the brain's response to multiple rewards and the relationship to body weight in children. We tested this by performing functional magnetic resonance imaging while children (7- to 11-years-old; healthy weight [n=31], overweight/obese [n=30]) played a modified card-guessing task to assess blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response to anticipating and winning food and money rewards. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were analysed using a region of interest and exploratory whole-brain approach. Region of interest results demonstrated increased BOLD response in the striatum to anticipating food vs. neutral (control) and winning money vs. neutral. Whole-brain data showed that winning money vs. food was associated with increased activation in the striatum, as well as regions associated with cognitive control and emotion. Notably, for both approaches, these effects were independent of child weight status. Additionally, children's reported food responsiveness and emotional overeating were negatively correlated with the BOLD response in the left cingulate gyrus for winning food vs. money. Overall, findings from this study show that regions associated with reward, cognitive control and emotion may play a role in the brain's response to food and money rewards, independently of how much the child weighs. These findings provide insight into reward sensitivity in children, which may have implications for understanding overeating and the development of obesity.

Trajectories of Brain Lactate and Re-visited Oxygen-Glucose Index Calculations Do Not Support Elevated Non-oxidative Metabolism of Glucose Across Childhood.

Brain growth across childhood is a dynamic process associated with specific energy requirements. A disproportionately higher rate of glucose utilization (CMRglucose) compared with oxygen consumption (CMRO2) was documented in children's brain and suggestive of non-oxidative metabolism of glucose. Several candidate metabolic pathways may explain the CMRglucose-CMRO2 mismatch, and lactate production is considered a major contender. The ~33% excess CMRglucose equals 0.18 μmol glucose/g/min and predicts lactate release of 0.36 μmol/g/min. To validate such scenario, we measured the brain lactate concentration ([Lac]) in 65 children to determine if indeed lactate accumulates and is high enough to (1) account for the glucose consumed in excess of oxygen and (2) support a high rate of lactate efflux from the young brain. Across childhood, brain [Lac] was lower than predicted, and below the range for adult brain. In addition, we re-calculated the CMRglucose-CMRO2 mismatch itself by using updated lumped constant values. The calculated cerebral metabolic rate of lactate indicated a net influx of 0.04 μmol/g/min, or in terms of CMRglucose, of 0.02 μmol glucose/g/min. Accumulation of [Lac] and calculated efflux of lactate from brain are not consistent with the increase in non-oxidative metabolism of glucose. In addition, the value for the lumped constant for [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose has a high impact on calculated CMRglucose and use of updated values alters or eliminates the CMRglucose-CMRO2 mismatch in developing brain. We conclude that the presently-accepted notion of non-oxidative metabolism of glucose during childhood must be revisited and deserves further investigations.

Weight loss, behavioral change, and structural neuroplasticity in children with obesity through a multidisciplinary treatment program.

This study evaluated the effect of a multidisciplinary treatment program for children with obesity (OB) on motor competence, executive functioning (EF), and brain structure. Nineteen children with OB (7-11 years), who attended a multidisciplinary treatment program consisting of diet restriction, cognitive behavioral therapy, and physical activity, were compared with an age-matched control group of 24 children with a healthy weight (HW), who did not follow any treatment. For both groups, anthropometric measurements and tests of motor competence and EF were administered twice, with 5 months between pretest and posttest. Additionally, children's brain structure was assessed by performing a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan at the pretest and posttest, which included a T1 anatomical scan, diffusion MRI scan, and magnetization transfer imaging scan. Compared to HW controls, children with OB lost a considerable amount of their body mass (p ≤ .001) and significantly improved their balance skills (p ≤ .001), while no transfer effects of the program were observed for EF. Furthermore, the program resulted in a significant increase in total (p ≤ .001) and cerebellar (p ≤ .001) gray matter volume in children with OB, while no change was observed in the HW controls. Finally, only weak to moderate (nonsignificant) correlations could be observed between structural brain alterations, weight-related changes, and behavioral improvements. Altogether, this is the first longitudinal study showing behavioral and structural brain alterations in response to a multidisciplinary weight loss program for children with OB. Our findings support the need for multidimensional intervention (and prevention) measures for children with OB to deal with this multifactorial health problem.

Language Exposure Relates to Structural Neural Connectivity in Childhood.

Neuroscience research has elucidated broad relationships between socioeconomic status (SES) and young children's brain structure, but there is little mechanistic knowledge about specific environmental factors that are associated with specific variation in brain structure. One environmental factor, early language exposure, predicts children's linguistic and cognitive skills and later academic achievement, but how language exposure relates to neuroanatomy is unknown. By measuring the real-world language exposure of young children (ages 4-6 years, 27 male/13 female), we confirmed the preregistered hypothesis that greater adult-child conversational experience, independent of SES and the sheer amount of adult speech, is related to stronger, more coherent white matter connectivity in the left arcuate and superior longitudinal fasciculi on average, and specifically near their anterior termination at Broca's area in left inferior frontal cortex. Fractional anisotropy of significant tract subregions mediated the relationship between conversational turns and children's language skills and indicated a neuroanatomical mechanism underlying the SES "language gap." Post hoc whole-brain analyses revealed that language exposure was not related to any other white matter tracts, indicating the specificity of this relationship. Results suggest that the development of dorsal language tracts is environmentally influenced, specifically by early, dialogic interaction. Furthermore, these findings raise the possibility that early intervention programs aiming to ameliorate disadvantages in development due to family SES may focus on increasing children's conversational exposure to capitalize on the early neural plasticity underlying cognitive development.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Over the last decade, cognitive neuroscience has highlighted the detrimental impact of disadvantaged backgrounds on young children's brain structure. However, to intervene effectively, we must know which proximal aspects of the environmental aspects are most strongly related to neural development. The present study finds that young children's real-world language exposure, and specifically the amount of adult-child conversation, correlates with the strength of connectivity in the left hemisphere white matter pathway connecting two canonical language regions, independent of socioeconomic status and the sheer volume of adult speech. These findings suggest that early intervention programs aiming to close the achievement gap may focus on increasing children's conversational exposure to capitalize on the early neural plasticity underlying cognitive development.

Prenatal Folic Acid Affects Children's Brains

In 1996, the U.S. mandated fortification of wheat flour with folic acid to avoid spina bifida. This clear demarcation was the foundation for an

Back And Forth Conversation With Children Important For Children's Brain Development

Back And Forth Conversation With Children Important For Children's Brain Development

Penerapan Pendekatan Montessori untuk Menanamkan Pemahaman Konsep Bilangan Cacah pada Siswa TK Putera Zaman Malang

Abstract
 Teaching counting lessons to kindergarten students is often considered taboo. Some people assume that should not teach counting lessons to children who have not even reached the age of seven years. A long debate arose due to an elementary school admission test that contained numerical questions. Is it true that kindergarten students are not allowed to learn numeracy lesson? The purpose of this study is to introduce a montessori approach, a feasible approach used to teach the concept of counting in kindergarten students.
 This research is a qualitative descriptive research conducted on TK A Putera Zaman students. The research begins with the conduct of obeservasi and interview, then proceed with applying montessori approach in learning done with teacher in class.
 The results of the research with the stand on the opinion of Maria Montessori that the early age to the age of six years is the phase Absorbent Minds, the child's brain will continue to change, grow rapidly, and open to new stimuli, so kindergarten A students have learned to count. Some steps to embed the concept of counting to the students of Kindergarten A Putera Zaman can be done with the following delivery steps: (1) Introduction to quantity 1 - 10, (2) What is zero, (3) Matching numbers with quantity 0 - 10, (4) Relation of 1 – 10, (5) Basic sum operation, and (8) Basic reduction operation. The result of cultivating the concept of chopping with montessori approach is that students can use mathematics based on reasoning, not just counting without logic.
 
 Keywords: montessori, concept, whole number, counting atkindergarten

The Role of Creative Design Teaching in the Promotion of Children's Creativity

In the world, science, technology, and economy are constantly moving forward. However, abundant and creative minds and profound intelligence are the real impetus of human’s progress. The cultivation of children's creativity has always been a hot field in international educational research and teaching practice. The development and cultivation of children's creativity is an important trend and specific educational goal of the national educational reform in the past half century. It can provide an extraordinary opportunity and condition for the development of preschool children's quality and the expression of natural creativity, for the formation of social values and collectivist moral concepts, and for the formation of personality and self-respect characteristic. In the process of shaping children’s creativity during preschool teaching, creative design focuses on activating ideas, enlightening wisdom, early development of young children's brain, training children's creativity, and training children's space and visual perception. Therefore, their knowledge of life is fully mobilized, so that our artistic education connotation further expands its depth and breadth, and we can give children a free imagination space and environment.

Evaluation of Knowledge regarding Shaken Baby Syndrome among Parents in Tabuk City

Background: abusive head trauma (AHT) or shaken baby syndrome (or SBS), is an injury to a child's brain as a result of abuse. SBS can be caused by direct blows to the head, dropping, throwing or shaking a child. The prevalence of SBS has been reported to be 14–33.8/100 000 in children aged below one year. With a mortality rate of approximately 25%, a great portion of the survivors continue their lives with functional disorders including learning difficulty, behavior problems, advanced cognitive and developmental retardation, stroke and blindness. Shaking frequently occurs as a result of getting angry of a caregiver of a baby who cries in an unspecifiable way. Therefore, caregivers of babies should be aware of their level of stress and learn how to cope with stress. Shaken baby syndrome is a preventable problem. However, we have limited knowledge about how educated of caregivers about SBS especially in less urbanized regions such as Northern Borders including Tabuk city. Aim of the Work: to evaluate parents' knowledge regarding shaking baby syndrome in Tabuk city. Patients and Methods: The target population of this research are parents who have children up to one year old in Tabuk city. A questionnaire was administered to parents who have children from birth up to one year old. The participants were consented and then the questionnaires were distributed to them. The questionnaires involved questions regarding some demographics including age, educational level, nationality, how many children. Questions regarding Level of knowledge about SBS included: incidents of shaking their baby during the first year of life, awareness about the risk of shaking your child in first year, knowledge about the term shaking baby syndrome. All data obtained with questionnaire were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. The chi square statistics were used to test our hypotheses and the distributions of categorical variables. Results: The total sample size was 92 participants. Descriptive statistics showed that 88% were Saudi, 60% were below the age of 40. Regarding education, 12% were illiterate. Regarding the knowledge about SBS, 57.61 % reported shaking the baby to make them quite within the 1st year of life. 67.39 % reported said they had no idea about the risks of shaken the baby during the 1st year of life. Moreover, about 70% reported they have never heard about what is called SBS. Conclusion: Majority of parents have never heard about SBS. Only 32% of the surveyed understood the connection of shaking with risks on the child’s life during the 1st year and thereafter. Perception, knowledge of and attitudes towards SBS must be addressed by applying Shaken Baby Syndrome educational and Prevention Programs especially in less urbanized regions such as Northern Borders including Tabuk city.

Evaluation of Knowledge regarding Shaken Baby Syndrome among Parents in Tabuk City

Background: abusive head trauma (AHT) or shaken baby syndrome (or SBS), is an injury to a child's brain as a result of abuse. SBS can be caused by direct blows to the head, dropping, throwing or shaking a child. The prevalence of SBS has been reported to be 14–33.8/100 000 in children aged below one year. With a mortality rate of approximately 25%, a great portion of the survivors continue their lives with functional disorders including learning difficulty, behavior problems, advanced cognitive and developmental retardation, stroke and blindness. Shaking frequently occurs as a result of getting angry of a caregiver of a baby who cries in an unspecifiable way. Therefore, caregivers of babies should be aware of their level of stress and learn how to cope with stress. Shaken baby syndrome is a preventable problem. However, we have limited knowledge about how educated of caregivers about SBS especially in less urbanized regions such as Northern Borders including Tabuk city. Aim of the Work: to evaluate parents' knowledge regarding shaking baby syndrome in Tabuk city. Patients and Methods: The target population of this research are parents who have children up to one year old in Tabuk city. A questionnaire was administered to parents who have children from birth up to one year old. The participants were consented and then the questionnaires were distributed to them. The questionnaires involved questions regarding some demographics including age, educational level, nationality, how many children. Questions regarding Level of knowledge about SBS included: incidents of shaking their baby during the first year of life, awareness about the risk of shaking your child in first year, knowledge about the term shaking baby syndrome. All data obtained with questionnaire were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. The chi square statistics were used to test our hypotheses and the distributions of categorical variables. Results: The total sample size was 92 participants. Descriptive statistics showed that 88% were Saudi, 60% were below the age of 40. Regarding education, 12% were illiterate. Regarding the knowledge about SBS, 57.61 % reported shaking the baby to make them quite within the 1st year of life. 67.39 % reported said they had no idea about the risks of shaken the baby during the 1st year of life. Moreover, about 70% reported they have never heard about what is called SBS. Conclusion: Majority of parents have never heard about SBS. Only 32% of the surveyed understood the connection of shaking with risks on the child’s life during the 1st year and thereafter. Perception, knowledge of and attitudes towards SBS must be addressed by applying Shaken Baby Syndrome educational and Prevention Programs especially in less urbanized regions such as Northern Borders including Tabuk city.

First wave of 9–10‐year‐olds in massive ABCD study recruited

The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study will recruit more than 11,000 young people ages 9 and 10, and follow them for 10 years to find out how children's brains develop, using brain scans and much monitoring. So far, almost half of the samples have been recruited at 21 study sites across the country for the project, which started out as the Collaborative Research on Addiction at NIH [National Institutes of Health] study. Originally involving only the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, and the National Cancer Institute, other collaborators in the federal government became interested, said Terry Jernigan, Ph.D., co‐director of the coordinating center for the study. Along with other ABCD researchers, she discussed how the study is going at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in New York City in May.

Еffects of fortified milk on cognitive abilities in school-aged children: results from a randomized-controlled trial.

Micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals and long-chain polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids (PUFAs) are essential for children's brain development and cognitive functions. The current study investigated whether milk fortified with micronutrients and PUFA can result in improved cognitive function in mainstream school children. One-hundred-and-nineteen children (age 8-14, 58 boys) were randomly allocated to a fortified milk group or a regular full milk control group. Participants consumed 0.6L/day of the milk for 5 months. We recorded relevant biochemical, anthropometric, and cognitive measures (working memory and processing speed) at the start of the study and at follow-up after 5 months. The fortified milk significantly increased docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (change from baseline of 28% [95% CI 17-39%] vs. -6% [95% CI - 13 to 0%] in the control group) and serum 25OH-vitamin D concentrations (41% [95% CI 30-52%] vs. 21% [95% CI 11-30%] in the control group). The fortified milk improved working memory on one of two tests (32% [95% CI 17-47%] vs. 13% [95% CI 6-19%] in the control group). The fortified milk also indirectly increased processing speed on one of two tests; this effect was small and completely mediated by increases in 25OH-vitamin D concentrations. These results suggest that fortifying milk with micronutrients and PUFA could be an effective and practical way to aid children's cognitive development.

Absorption of wireless radiation in the child versus adult brain and eye from cell phone conversation or virtual reality

Children's brains are more susceptible to hazardous exposures, and are thought to absorb higher doses of radiation from cell phones in some regions of the brain. Globally the numbers and applications of wireless devices are increasing rapidly, but since 1997 safety testing has relied on a large, homogenous, adult male head phantom to simulate exposures; the “Standard Anthropomorphic Mannequin” (SAM) is used to estimate only whether tissue temperature will be increased by more than 1 Celsius degree in the periphery. The present work employs anatomically based modeling currently used to set standards for surgical and medical devices, that incorporates heterogeneous characteristics of age and anatomy. Modeling of a cell phone held to the ear, or of virtual reality devices in front of the eyes, reveals that young eyes and brains absorb substantially higher local radiation doses than adults’. Age-specific simulations indicate the need to apply refined methods for regulatory compliance testing; and for public education regarding manufacturers' advice to keep phones off the body, and prudent use to limit exposures, particularly to protect the young.

Late Breaking Abstracts.

Late Breaking Abstracts.

Brain-to-brain synchrony in parent-child dyads and the relationship with emotion regulation revealed by fNIRS-based hyperscanning

Parent-child synchrony, the coupling of behavioral and biological signals during social contact, may fine-tune the child's brain circuitries associated with emotional bond formation and the child's development of emotion regulation. Here, we examined the neurobiological underpinnings of these processes by measuring parent's and child's prefrontal neural activity concurrently with functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning. Each child played both a cooperative and a competitive game with the parent, mostly the mother, as well as an adult stranger. During cooperation, parent's and child's brain activities synchronized in the dorsolateral prefrontal and frontopolar cortex (FPC), which was predictive for their cooperative performance in subsequent trials. No significant brain-to-brain synchrony was observed in the conditions parent-child competition, stranger-child cooperation and stranger-child competition. Furthermore, parent-child compared to stranger-child brain-to-brain synchrony during cooperation in the FPC mediated the association between the parent's and the child's emotion regulation, as assessed by questionnaires. Thus, we conclude that brain-to-brain synchrony may represent an underlying neural mechanism of the emotional connection between parent and child, which is linked to the child's development of adaptive emotion regulation. Future studies may uncover whether brain-to-brain synchrony can serve as a neurobiological marker of the dyad's socio-emotional interaction, which is sensitive to risk conditions, and can be modified by interventions.

Rancangan Aplikasi Game Edukasi Berbasis Mobile Menggunakan App Inventor

Mobile technology has penetrated into the learning media in the form of games, one of which is an educational game. Educational games are designed to change the learning patterns of children, typically by seeing teachers writing on the floor and listening to speaking teachers. In the fox with the pattern of teaching using mobile gaming applications such as voice, images and interactive quizzes that can introduce teaching materials to be more interesting to be accepted and understood especially for children who are still at an early age. This method can spur the child's brain to be able to think more active and creative in the age of growth. This educational game is designed with an interesting and interactive view of fruits, animals, colors, numbers, letters and interactive quizzes. Quizzes are performed to evaluate the child's memory after the material is delivered. This app is designed by using App Inventor2 android app.

Working Memory Updating Training Improves Mathematics Performance in Middle School Students With Learning Difficulties.

Working memory (WM) deficit is considered the key cause of learning difficulties (LDs). Studies have shown that WM is plastic and thus can be improved through training. This positive effect is transferable to fluid intelligence and academic performance. This study investigated whether WM updating ability and academic performance in children with LDs could be improved through WM updating training and explored the effects of this training on the children’s brain activity. We used a running memory task lasting approximately 40 min per day for 28 days to train a group of 23 children with LDs (TLDs group). We also selected two control groups of 22 children with LDs (CLDs group) and 20 children without LDs (normal control [NC] group). The behavioral results of a pretest indicated that WM updating ability and academic performance in the TLDs and CLDs groups were significantly lower than those in the NC group before training. Compared with the CLDs group, the TLDs group exhibited significant performance improvement in a 2-back WM task, as well as in mathematical ability. Event-related potentials (ERPs) results suggested that the amplitudes of N160 (representative of visual recognition) and P300 (representative of updating processing, which is a valid index for updating WM) in the TLDs and CLDs groups were markedly lower than those in the NC group before training. In the TLDs group, these two components increased considerably after training, approaching levels similar to those in the NC group. The results of this study suggest that WM updating training can improve WM updating ability in children with LDs and the training effect can transfer to mathematical performance in such children. Furthermore, the participants’ brain activity levels can exhibit positive changes. This article provides experimental evidence that WM updating training could mitigate the symptoms of LDs to a certain degree.

Cholesterol Metabolism Is Enhanced in the Liver and Brain of Children With Citrin Deficiency.

Citrin-deficient infants present neonatal intrahepatic cholestasis caused by citrin deficiency (NICCD), which resolves at 12 months. Thereafter, they have normal liver function associated with hypercholesterolemia, and a preference for lipid-rich carbohydrate-restricted diets. However, some develop adult-onset type II citrullinemia, which is associated with metabolic abnormalities. To identify the causes of hypercholesterolemia in citrin-deficient children post-NICCD. We determined the concentrations of sterol markers of cholesterol synthesis, absorption, and catabolism by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry and evaluated serum lipoprotein profiles. Twenty citrin-deficient children aged 5 to 13 years and 37 age-matched healthy children. None. Relationship between serum lipoproteins and sterol markers of cholesterol metabolism. The citrin-deficient group had a significantly higher high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) concentration than did the control group (78 ± 11 mg/dL vs 62 ± 14 mg/dL, P < 0.001), whereas the two groups had similar low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations. The concentrations of markers of cholesterol synthesis (lathosterol and 7-dehydrocholesterol) and bile acids synthesis (7α-hydroxycholesterol and 27-hydroxycholesterol) were 1.5- to 2.8-fold and 1.5- to 3.9-fold, respectively, higher in the citrin-deficient group than in the control group. The concentration of 24S-hydroxycholesterol, a marker of cholesterol catabolism in the brain, was 2.5-fold higher in the citrin-deficient group. In both groups, the HDL-C concentration was significantly positively correlated with that of 27-hydroxycholesterol, the first product of the alternative bile acid synthesis pathway. HDL-C and sterol marker concentrations are elevated in citrin-deficient children post-NICCD. Moreover, cholesterol synthesis and elimination are markedly enhanced in the liver and brain of citrin-deficient children.

'You must know what you mean when you say that': the morality of knowledge claims about ADHD in radio phone-ins.

Drawing on a corpus of radio phone-ins, we present a discursive psychological analysis of how mothers carefully tailor their knowledge claims regarding their children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Mothers typically claim knowledge about their children's good intentions, but not about the 'ADHD-ness' of their conduct. Whereas the former is seen as appropriate knowledge for a concerned parent, the latter is treated as a matter of expert knowledge. We show that as soon as problematic behaviour is treated as observable from the outside and describable by mothers and other lay persons, it becomes vulnerable to being formulated as 'normal disobedience', rather than symptomatic of a professionally administered, doctorable condition. We argue that it is important to be aware of the moralities hidden in knowledge claims, as they help sustain an unproductive perspective in which either the child's brain or his mother is blamed for behaviour perceived as problematic.